By Eli Itzhaky
On April 22, the Yeshiva University Stock Exchange (YUSE) club hosted Trey “Trades” Collins during their first-ever event. The event was moderated by YUSE President Jake Sheckter and YSU president Zachary Greenberg. Trey is a very popular trader on Youtube with over 200k subscribers — he provides his viewers with top notch content and has established himself as the prominent AMC bull. The first question of our event tackled Trey’s background. He described to us how he had trained to become a professional marathon runner before discovering a heart condition which derailed his running career. While searching for a new hobby to learn, Trey stumbled upon the stock market. Trey, who has a government job and works on his YouTube channel at the same time, explained how he successfully balances both. He credits his time-management skills to the tight schedule he sticks to daily, devoting ample time to researching and preparing for his videos while never slacking off from his schedule. Trey further stressed the importance of time management and sticking to a schedule if one wants to achieve success.
Trey also spoke about the growth of investors over the pandemic, primarily the growth of Robinhood. Robinhood can be described as the beginner app for investing. An easy to use brokerage, Robinhood’s mission is to make investing accessible and understandable to all, no matter one’s knowledge or capital available.
Jake then asked Trey what he thinks about newer investment strategies, as well as the addition of so many younger investors to the stock market. Trey highlighted the continued transition away from position trading (long-term) towards momentum-based trading and investing based on the future, as evidenced by outrageous P/E ratios for many tech-related companies. Jake then asked if Trey believes, like many currently do, that the market is overvalued in its current state. Trey responded that the market is definitely overextended, given the juxtaposition between current COVID-19 pandemic conditions and the all-time high prices many companies are generating. Trey named inflation as the catalyst for a large-scale correction, given the amount of money being printed and the amount of funding hedge funds have been getting from the major banks. Trey then gave us his 5 favorite picks for the long term: Microvision $MVIS, ExOne Company $XONE, Sensonics $SENS, Applied Genetic $AGTC and Technologies (these are just ideas and should not be taken literally as financial advice.) Regarding the quick recent rise of crypto currencies, Trey believes the crypto sector has more room to grow and has potential to grow peoples savings into fortunes. Savings accounts and bonds no longer can keep up with inflation, Bitcoin can. Trey sees Ethereum as the younger brother of Bitcoin but thinks both will experience tremendous growth over the next 5-10 years.
We then dove into the recent rise of the “meme stocks” and how Trey began to support AMC’s stock so intently. Trey discussed how Gamestop’s incredible run showed him that something strange was going on, so he began looking at other meme stocks which he believed many investors would FOMO their way into. AMC’s heavy short volume, combined with the coming influx of people finally returning to movie theaters after the pandemic, made this stock his perfect target. Trey touched upon NFT’s and revealed that he is actually working on his own. He thinks they’re here to stay. He agreed that soaring prices are probably in a bubble but sees a possible transition from physical to digital art. Trey sent us off with some advice points, mainly 4: Grit, skill, timing and luck. “Timing and luck are determined by your grit and skill. “ Trey was preaching the importance of always learning and trying to make a lesson out of everything. Trey attributes his success to his grit as at a point in his life, he was living in his car for a few months but never gave up.
The Yeshiva University Stock Exchange Club’s mission very much aligns with the goals of Robinhood (aside from the occasional price manipulation of certain stocks). We work to make investing understandable to everyone- this includes daily stock tips, sending weekly upcoming earnings charts and engaging in stock talk on a daily basis. This past semester, we started incorporating cryptocurrencies into our chat, offering crypto Friday stock tips. This is just one of many speakers to come and Trey was definitely a great way to get it started!